Evidence for the absence of attentional biases towards stigma- and disease-related information in Atopic Dermatitis (preprint)

The hypervigilance hypothesis of psychosocial distress posits that individuals with visible skin conditions exhibit an attentional bias toward disease- or stigma-related information. While previous research has focused on psoriasis, the present study represents the first empirical test of the hypervigilance hypothesis in atopic dermatitis. Across a series of four pre-registered reaction time studies, we found no evidence that people with atopic dermatitis preferentially allocate their attention to words that are related to the sensory-affective or stigmatizing disease experience, relative to neutral control words. This was the case both during the early phase of stimulus disengagement, as well as during a later maintained attention phase dominated by controlled strategic processes. Overall, contrary to our expectations, results are incompatible with the hypervigilance hypothesis since the attention of people with atopic dermatitis was not biased towards the disease or stigma-related information.